HI All
We have issued a reprimand to a school that broke the law when it introduced facial recognition technology (FRT).
Chelmer Valley High School, in Chelmsford, Essex, first started using the technology in March 2023 to take cashless canteen payments from students.
FRT processes biometric data to uniquely identify people and is likely to result in high data protection risks. To use it legally and responsibly, organisations must have a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) in place. This is to identify and manage the higher risks that may arise from processing sensitive data.
Chelmer Valley High School, which has around 1,200 pupils aged 11-18, failed to carry out a DPIA before starting to use the FRT. This meant no prior assessment was made of the risks to the children's information. The school had not properly obtained clear permission to process the students’ biometric information and the students were not given the opportunity to decide whether they did or didn’t want it used in this way.
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2024/07/essex-school-reprimanded-after-...
Regards
Caute_Cautim
